An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. The protection of the enslaved person's body is extended to specific injuries: an eye destroyed by the master's blow grants the slave freedom. The compensation is not monetary but liberatory — the loss of an eye is compensated by the gain of freedom. This is a remarkable provision in the ancient world: the property owner's careless or violent act toward their property results in losing that property. The law uses the master's self-interest (loss of labor) to deter violence against the enslaved. The direction is again toward greater protection of the vulnerable: every specific provision for the enslaved reduces the master's power over their bodies.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse